![]() ![]() She used the occasion to ask for volunteers willing to participate in a further inquiry into weight loss in practice. One of the present authors, AM, while wondering about possible escapes from the ‘control versus excess’ paradigm, was being interviewed by an online journal for dieticians. It was against this background that we started our ethnographic inquiries into care practices in The Netherlands for people who want to (or, as they often put it themselves, have to) lose weight. While these views are in opposition to one another, a similar scheme is at work in both: rationality and control are disentangled from, and contrasted with, desire and excess. #Johan tinge mindfulness freeOthers argue that siding with health is disciplining or normalising and go on to suggest that, instead, we would do well to give free rein to our desires (Smith 2008). Some wonder how people's ability to exercise control might be strengthened (Coveney and Bunton 2003, Jallinoja et al. There are social scientists who explore how people negotiate their concern with health and their desire for pleasure in their daily lives. In the social sciences the tension between health and pleasure tends to be taken for granted as well. It is not just nutrition scientists, government officials, healthcare professionals and diet gurus who sing this song. They admonish us to behave, that is, to take control over what we eat and abstain from excessive food pleasures. Such campaigns target what public health research calls health behaviour. Hence, the public is provided with information about food (its calories its carbohydrate content its fatty acids and so on) and warned that overweight and obesity cause health problems (diabetes, vascular disease, osteoarthritis and so on). ![]() What remains is the possibility of addressing consumers and urging them to make healthy food choices. Working towards these goals clashes with the market organisation of food production and consumption and with the interests of the food industry. However, it appears to be difficult to achieve a world with fewer adverts, fewer fatty foods outlets, smaller servings of soft drinks and better access to healthy food. In response to this problem public health advocates seek to address the obesogenic environment. Jointly, or such is the argument, weakness of will and the abundance of readily available calories cause an increase in overweight and obesity. That they live in an obesogenic environment does not help. All too easily the conclusion is drawn that those concerned are not strong-willed enough to give up the gratification that eating and drinking offer. #Johan tinge mindfulness plusA year after the interview Isa had regained her original weight, plus a bit more. But despite the ingenious character of the tricks, it is not easy to shift one's energy balance. They relate to food as energy and help people to absorb less energy than they burn. Strategies like these are widely used by people who want to lose weight. For it entails a shift from externally controlling your behaviour to self-caringly enjoying your food. However, in the situations related here the difference is worth making. But while engaging in such care is hard work, along the way clients are encouraged to no longer ask ‘Am I being good?’ but to wonder instead ‘Is this good for me?’ Both these questions are normative and focus on the person rather than on her socio-material context. What is more, sensitivity is not enough: enjoying one's food also depends on the food being enjoyable. And while one kind of hunger may be difficult to distinguish from another, feeling pleasure may open the doors to feeling pain. This does not come naturally but needs training. They encourage their clients to enjoy their food, as only such joy provides satisfaction and the sense that one has eaten enough. Does healthy eating require people to control themselves and abstain from pleasure? This idea is dominant, but in our studies of dieting in The Netherlands we encountered professionals who work in other ways. ![]()
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